2  Special characters and text formatting

2.1 Unicode

Unicode characters can be included in text by using the Unicode escape sequence (see the Quotes help file for some infomration ). Use \unnnn or \Unnnnnnnn for 4 or 8 digit Unicode hex codes. Some useful characters are:

≤	Less-than or equal to	\u2264
≥	Greater-than or equal to	\u2265
²	Superscript 2	\u00B2
₂	Subscript 2	\u2082
𝛘	Mathematical bold small chi	\U1D6D8
ꭓ	Latin small chi	\uAB53
μ	Greek small mu	\u03BC
σ	Greek small sigma	\u03C3
ρ	Greek small rho	\u03C1
Δ	Greek capital delta	\u0349

2.2 Shape plot axis titles

Axis titles in shape_plot() plots use the element_text theme element. Their formatting can be adjusted by adding an appropriate theme to the plot.

shape_plot(my_results,
           col.x = "risk_factor",
           xlims = c(15, 30),
           ylims = c(-0.25, 0.5),
           xlab = "BMI (kg/m\u00B2)",
           add = list(end = theme(axis.title.x = element_text(colour = "red"))))

The theme element could also be changed, for example to element_marquee() from the marquee package. This allows some markdown syntax and styling.

shape_plot(my_results,
           col.x = "risk_factor",
           xlims = c(15, 30),
           ylims = c(-0.25, 0.5),
           xlab = "**BMI** (kg/m{.sup 2 })",
           add = list(end = theme(axis.title.x = marquee::element_marquee())))

2.3 Forest plot row labels

From ckbplotr v0.12.0, forest_plot() row labels use element_marquee() from the marquee package (unless changed by the row.labels.element argument). So the markdown syntax and styling available in the marquee package can be used.

new_row_labels <- data.frame(
  subgroup = c("men", "women",
               "35_49", "50_64", "65_79"),
  group    = c("Sex", "Sex",
               "Age", "Age", "Age"),
  label    = c("{.blue Men}", "{.orange Women}",
               "35 - 49 *years*", "50 - 64", "65 - 79")
)

forest_plot(my_results,
            col.key = "subgroup",
            row.labels = new_row_labels)

2.4 Forest plot axis title

The x-axis title in a forest_plot() plot is created by geom_text_move() which takes the same arguments as geom_text(). To change the formatting of the axis title use xlab in the addarg argument.

forest_plot(my_results,
            col.key = "subgroup",
            row.labels = row_labels,
            addarg = list(xlab = c("size = 5", "colour = 'darkred' ")))

2.5 Forest plot text columns

The columns in a forest_plot() plot are created by geom_text_move() which takes the same arguments as geom_text(). To change formatting use col.right, heading.right, col.left and heading.left in the addaes and addarg arguments.

forest_plot(my_results,
            col.key = "subgroup",
            row.labels = row_labels,
            addarg = list(heading.right = c("colour = 'darkblue', angle = -10")))

The left.parse and right.parse arguments of forest_plot() can also be used to make the columns or headings parsed into expressions and displayed as plotmath.

forest_plot(my_results,
            col.key = "subgroup",
            row.labels = row_labels,
            col.right = "chisq",
            right.hjust = c(0, 1),
            right.heading = c("HR (95% CI)", "bold('\U1D6D8'^'2')"),
            right.parse = c("", "heading"))